‘My bad’: Stuart Robert blames MyGov crash on DoS attack
March 23, 2020
Robert claimed the myGov website crashed due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and not because of the large number of people who were unemployed due to Covid-19 and were trying to log into MyGov to register for Centrelink.
But later that afternoon in question time, Robert was forced to retract his statement, telling parliament that the alarms designed to detect and stop DDoS attacks were triggered due to the large volume of people trying to log in.
“This is the most pathetic excuse imaginable for the failure of the Morrison government to plan for an entirely foreseeable surge in user demand,” Labor MP Tim Watts tweeted.
Robert later said he’d prepared over the weekend for traffic on the site to increase from 6000 to 55,000 visits. “I didn’t think I’d have to prepare for 100,000 concurrent users,” Robert said.
“My bad for not realising the sheer scale of the decision on Sunday night by the national leaders that literally saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people, unemployed overnight.”
A 30-year veteran of the mainstream media, Liz was the editor of MWMuntil June 2021. Liz began her career in journalism in 1990 and worked at The Age newspaper for two 10-year stints. She also worked at The Guardian newspaper in London for more than seven years. A former professional tennis player who represented Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Liz has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Letters (Hons).